Monday, April 15, 2013

This Week In.. 1980 - Whizzer and Chips

It's time once again to return to the greatest comic ever produced - Whizzer and Chips! This issue went on sale this week 33 years ago in 1980, the exact cover date being 12th April 1980.The first strip inside is Jack Edward Oliver's take on TheChamp. Originally illustrated by Leo Bexandale, then by Colin Whittock in a similar style, Jack's Champ was something else entirely. I'll let you judge for yourselves.

On the Whizz Kids letters page was a strip called Whizz Kids vs. Chip-ites. This was part one, part two appeared on the Chip-ites letters page, but I've shown both parts together for easy reading.

Lazy Bones is one of my favourite comic characters (up there with Sweeny Toddler and X-Ray Specs), and I couldn't imagine an artist more suited to the strip than Colin Whittock. He did an amazing job of the strip over its very long run, but this isn't one of his best - it's still good though.

And now we move into Chips, the rival comic to Whizzer!

Pongo Snodgrass is a weird strip about the world's worst smelling kid, illustrated by none other than Ian Knox, who, come to think of it, drew quite a few weird strips.

The Krazy Gang follows this, a great two-page adventure in brilliant Chip-ite blue.

This is followed by Run Rogan Run, or Rogan Runs Again, as it was known by this point. I don't know who the artist for this strip was, although this episode is signed. I can make out a 'masip 80' I think, and the 80 stands for 1980 of course, but does anybody know the artists name?

This is followed by a two-page episode of Terry Bave's politically incorrect strip The Slimms. I very much doubt something like this would appear today, it would probably be deemed as inappropriate, although really it's all good humour.

Moving back into Whizzer, and the last strip I'll show is Sid Burgon's Joker, which appeared in glorious full colour on the back page.

About Me

A huge fan of British comics, I've been collecting comics for several years, and now have several thousand dating back to the 1800's - with some early Ally Sloper comics!
Amongst other strips I draw and write Graham's Onions, Pete and Squelch, Billy and Sid and The Implausable Adventures Of Eric. I am also creator and editor of The Atomic Comic, a fanzine focused on British comics.